Domestic workers come out of the closet in Hong Kong

Sunday, Feb 2, 2014

Sunday, Feb 2, 2014

HONG KONG - Working long hours away from home for low pay and little time off, life is tough for foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong, but for some the city has brought sexual liberation unheard of in their home countries.

To Jenny Patoc, a 41-year-old Filipina helper, Hong Kong is the place where she met her girlfriend 15 years ago and where they unofficially tied the knot at their own "holy union" ceremony last year - despite the semi-autonomous territory's failure to recognise same sex marriages.

"In Hong Kong, we are free. We can show who we are," Patoc told AFP in the southern Chinese city's packed Central financial district on a recent Sunday, where thousands of helpers congregate every week on their one day off.

While conservative attitudes still prevail in aspects of Hong Kong society, for many migrant workers the former British colony is an easier place than home to be gay, particularly those from Muslim Indonesia and the deeply Catholic Philippines.

Roughly 300,000 domestic workers make about HK$4,000 (S$658) a month as helpers for Hong Kong families, doing household chores and looking after children while the parents are out at work.

They are mainly from the Philippines, Indonesia or Thailand, many supporting their families by sending earnings home.

Conditions can be tough. In a report last year Amnesty International condemned the "slavery-like" conditions faced by thousands of Indonesian women who work in Hong Kong as domestic staff, accusing authorities of inaction.

The findings came just weeks after a Hong Kong couple were jailed for a shocking string of attacks on their Indonesian housekeeper, including burning her with an iron and beating her with a bike chain.

Last month thousands of domestic workers took to the streets demanding justice for another Indonesian helper who claimed that she was left unable to walk after eight months of abuse at the hands of her employer who has subsequently been arrested.

And this week another Hong Kong housewife was arrested for allegedly assaulting her Bangladeshi maid.